Universities and others hit back on plagiarism and the ghost writing service

Universities in Australia now have harsher penalties for the students who use ghost writing services. It is only a small amount of them. We also have harsh $800 penalties for those who post their services on Facebook and other social networking sites as part of the crackdown on plagiarism.We explain.

A few months after the Mymaster scandal and universities are hitting back on this ghost writing thing. First up was University of Sydney. The University of Sydney now has stricter policies dealing with this.

When RNIS saw all the ads on Facebook they decided on an ultimatium: "Remove the ad or face $800 penalty for the ad and everytime you place the ad on Facebook". They also have been removing many of these ads on campus.

RNIS did a search bing.com and found a lot of ads. They found about 33,600,000 results online.

Our test question was this: Are iPads effective for the classroom? We also pretended that we had an assignment due a few days after and pretended to be the panicking student.

We tried out one site called assignmentwriting.com. It looks legitimate to one disconcerning eye who does not know that it is illegal to get someone to write your assignment for you. They had been going for eight years.It is about $312.00 for one website to write a 6,000 word research paper.

On Assignment helps it is about $720 to write a 10,000 word report. On another site called Aussie Quality it was the same price and they had been going for 11 years.

The message to students is don't waste your money using these services. Instead if you are having problems do talk to your lecturer or utilise university services. They are free for all students. Universities are known to have stricter penalties for this sort of behaviour.

TAFE accused of letting students pass

Box Hill TAFE has been letting International students to pass their exams by altering them. We report on this latest cheating scandal that has rocked the TAFE side of uni

Exams. Picture is from independent.co.uk

In a report late last week it was reported that Box Hill TAFE have been letting International students to pass their exams when they should have failed. It is like plagiarism. It had been brought to the attention of the Victorian Government by 4 former teachers and 2 former students.

These allegations happened in 2012/2013 and it was reported to the Anti Corruption body. Since then they are still investigating the matter. In that year it was the Liberals that ruled Victoria. Now it is Daniel Andrews from the labour party who said that it is not ok. During that time there were a lot of TAFE funding cuts, hence the quality of teaching had diminished

The Victorian TAFE Association also frowns upon the fraud that is going on. But they support the Box Hill TAFE during this difficult time

In 2013 there was a survey and 54% of the TAFE teachers felt pressurised to pass students because students are paying a lot of money for a degree. CISA said that it was due "societial and cultural pressure from back home". In China and other Asian countries many parents put a lot of pressure on their kids to pass everything.

Our response to that matter is that universities need to have a more stringent and clearer guidelines around marking. RMIT has been good in that respect as to implementing some clearer instructions and guidelines for everyone including TAFE. When you apply to work for RMIT they will ask for the police check and working with children check.

When the Age published this story people were unhappy about the cuts to TAFE and were eager to shame "Box Hill TAFE".

It is the fair few International students that ruin it for everyone. In the long run when these graduates are working they may be asked to demonstrate something that they don't know. Something that was said to us a few days ago was "When you are working people will not tell you whether you are doing the wrong or the right thing. University will guide you through this process". It means that students need to find the answer for themselves, not rely on others.

In summary: we absolutely condone cheating and fraud (altering of marks just to pass students). If you need any help with your assignment you should use your university's student learning service. They are there for you.

Study Melbourne Info Day to come

This Saturday the 14th of March is a very important day. Why? It is the Study Melbourne day of course.
Study Melbourne Info Day is organised by AFIS in what promises to an amazing day full of fun, friendships and essential information.

In previous semesters the event was at the Drill Hall outside the market.

This time the event is in RMIT's Storey Hall which a purple and green building right next to the Green brain. The location is diagonally across the road from Melbourne Central and RMIT has its own tram stop outside the free tram zone.  Like previous years, there will be volunteers standing at the entrance to greet you.

There is bike parking available but its at the owners risk.

Like previous semesters there was always free food and the free food is usually a sandwich or two. But if it is a sunny day they might just do a BBQ outside in Bowen st.

The theme is fun, friend and fact and the event is on from 12pm-6pm. Do register for this free event on Eventbrite.

Setting goals

International students need to think about the goals that they wish to set for the year ahead. Now is a good time to think about these. Here we outline a short guide to setting them.

Image courtesy of blogging4jobs.com.

Goals should be set so that you know where you want to go. Many people don't set goals or set very vague ones. Many International students don't know what they want to achieve in their studies in Australia. Goals are a very good way to motivate yourself when studying or in life.

They should be SMART (Specific Measurable Attainable Reliable and Timely) goals. Think about what you want to achieve this semester. Be specific and think about the time in which you want to do them in.
Eg: have High distinctions for Mathematics by the end of the semester.
Think about how you will achieve the goal. Ask yourself: what do I need to achieve this goal/doing.

Be proactive. Do the work early. Plan ahead.

Long term and short team goals
Long term ones is for the year ahead and short term ones can be for the week ahead or for the next hour. Big goals (long term) take a lot of time and effort and smaller ones (short term) don't take a lot of time.

Doing it
Follow them to the latter if you can. Make a timetable. Also write a list of what needs to be done. This will help you to achieve them. Get help if you need to.

Do join up to Mind Tools to get some useful tips on studying.